Active vs. Passive Voice

Why should writers think about their verbs?

“Verbs are the most important of all your tools. They push the sentence forward and give it momentum. Active verbs push hard; passive verbs tug fitfully.”

-- William Zinsser,

On Writing Well

What is Active Voice?

In the Active voice, the subject performs the action.

For example:

The Giants won the Super Bowl last year.

The team is the subject and it did something (won).

What is passive voice?

In passive voice the subject is acted upon.

For example:

The Super Bowl was won by the Packers.

When to use passive voice Use passive voice when you do not wish to

emphasize the subject of the sentence.

Example:

Smoking is prohibited. (passive)

The management prohibits smoking. (active)

Why would the passive voice be preferred in this example?

Passive Voice (continued) Also use passive voice when you wish to

emphasize what happened and the person or thing acting is unknown or unimportant.

Example

Poisonous gases were found in six factories.

The use of passive emphasizes the finding of

gases, not who found them.

Note: Because passive voice often leads to awkward or wordy

constructions, use passive voice sparingly and with good reason; you will not use passive voice in writing about literature.

When to use active voice Use active voice unless you are required or

have very specific reasons for doing otherwise.

Active voice generally leads to more concise writing.

It clarifies who is performing the action.

Remember: Staying active is a healthy practice,

especially in your writing!

How to avoid passive voice

Many English verbs have been changed into useful nouns with the use of a suffix.

Announce – announcement

Propose - proposal

Depart – departure

Meet – meeting

For active voice sentences use the verb instead of the noun form of these kinds of words.

Rewrite the following sentences by changing nouns to verbs to make

them less wordy.

The two scientists could not arrive at a conclusion on anything.

They held discussions on several topics.

However, neither could put forth a proposal for a plan.

They only made a translation of previous studies.

Changing From Passive to Active Voice

The seeds were scattered by Jessica.

A healthy harvest is expected by Jessica and her father.

To preserve active voice, place

the noun/s doing the action

before the verb. Try it!

Avoid forms of the verb to be

All passives consist of a form of the verb to be (am, is, are, was, were, being, been) plus a past participle. By changing to active voice, you avoid to be verbs, thereby killing two birds with one stone!

Example: The boy was impressed by Ms. Jones.

A past participle is the ed form of regular verbs (For irregular verbs: en, n, t) and can fill the empty slot in this sentence: “I had _______ it.”

Revise by avoiding to be verbs

Houses were destroyed by the storm.

The cake was eaten by me.

Inexpensive ways for people to have fun are provided by parks.

Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by Joseph Priestley.

A kitten was chosen by the family to have as a pet.

Summary

Use active voice unless specified otherwise.

Make sure the subject is acting and not being acted upon.

Use the verb form of words with suffixes

Place subjects in front of the action they perform (this often eliminates to be verbs)

Avoid to be forms of verbs

Works Cited

Ebest, Sally Barr and Charles T. Brusaw. Writing from A to Z. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing, 2000.

Keen, Michael and Katherine H. Adams. Easy Access. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.

Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Quick Access. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.